The NFFI level is generally not substantial in most nations, since factor payments earned by their citizens and those paid to foreigners more or less offset each other. However, the NFFI's impact may be significant in smaller nations with substantial foreign investment in relation to their economy and few assets overseas, since their GDP will be quite high compared to GNP.

BREAKING DOWN 'Net Foreign Factor Income (NFFI)'

Note that GDP refers to all economic output that occurs domestically or within a nation’s boundaries, regardless of whether production is owned by a local company or foreign entity. GNP, on the other hand, measures output from the citizens and companies of a particular nation, regardless of whether they are located within its boundaries or overseas. For example, if a Japanese company has a production facility in the U.S., its output will count toward U.S. GDP, but Japan’s GNP.

While GDP is the most widely accepted measure of economic output, having supplanted GNP around 1990, it is criticized by some economists for providing a somewhat misleading picture of an economy's true health and the well-being of its citizens. This is because GDP does not take into account the profits earned in a nation by overseas companies that are remitted back to foreign investors. If these remitted profits are very large compared with earnings from the nation’s overseas citizens and assets, the NFFI figure will be negative, and GNP will be significantly below GDP.